Aberdeen (2000)

It is a performances centric movie

Film Perfection

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The relationship between a father and a daughter is too complicated to comprehend. In "Aberdeen" we are united with perhaps the most dysfunctional relationship in independent film history. Kaisa, a successful, drug addicted young woman who sleeps around with various guys, is requested by her dying mother to fly to Norway from Scotland and pick up her alcoholic father and bring him to Aberdeen before her mom dies. Not only do the father and daughter hate each other, but they can't get along for one second. What's really brilliant that directer Hans Peter Molland does is make you care for these two people no matter how terrible they may seem. He points out the flaws in people, and examines how complicated family relationships can be. The true prize of the film is Lena Headey and Stellan Skarsgard for portraying two broken people who have to deal with each other for an entire trip. It's great to see Headey as a young actress in a small film before becoming Cersei Lannister on "Game of Thrones." You see how emotional she can be as an actress, and it is impossible to make you not care about her character. Skarsgard plays the drunk better than anyone in movies. He shows the physical and mental damages that alcoholism does, but more importantly, what it does to others. "Aberdeen" delivers us into a world of hatred and dysfunction, but finds room to fix all that with beauty and growth of a failed relationship that isn't forever damaged.

Aberdeen is an excellent character-driven film. It is one of the best films I have seen in a very long time (now that we have to slog through gargantuan archives of direct-to-DVD films just to get to the few good ones). Charlotte Rampling's line, "Sometimes ugly can be nice" captures the film's characters very well. Stellan Skarsgard, Lena Headey, Ian Hart and Charlotte Rampling are superb in this understated, European (English language) melodrama. Both the beautifully sparse cinematography and Preisner's "childish" score work very well subtextually. The plot is driven by destination and deadline, and this road movie uses every scenario to develop or reinforce character traits. The dialogue is equally sparse and terse, leaving the audience to fill in the blanks to diffuse the dramatic tension. I highly recommend this film, especially if you're not afraid of delving into some Scandinavian melancholy. I give it a 10 for being emotionally engaging and differentiating itself from a bevy of moribund films and/or lifeless protagonists whose goals are inconsequential; the characters in Aberdeen are tragically flawed, but one cares for them. Deeply.

"Aberdeen" is a road trip of a father-daughter relationship. But with raw, uninhibited performances by Stellan Starsgard (as an alcoholic Norwegian oil rigger) and Lena Headey (with a thick Scotch brogue).Charlotte Rampling is a very effective deus ex machina mother bringing them together with a goal and a deadline, while Ian Hart is memorable as the nice, normal guy thrown into their war, helping to restore their sanity. One of the most romantic scenes I've seen in the movies in years is him simply wiping her brow, while the dad looks on uncomfortably.The route and fine details of this picaresque film are unpredictable, as they find Aberdeen and themselves. (originally written 8/31/2001)

very touching movie..the acting performances are fabulous, 'aberdeen' is very realistic piece of film. almost shockingly realistic.it was great to see a movie like this for a change. i've seen so much of these music-video-goes-hollywood-goes-kungfu movies, that a movie really ABOUT SOMETHING was nice again..i can't say it would've been a perfect ten, for that you'd need much more originality. but very well done, and obviously the actors liked the directors, since they are giving their very best.